Nice article. I remember my 6th grade teacher saying an invading army used the sphinx as target practice. It's too bad we feel this way. It is interesting too how it can be covered up completely in sand for so long. Makes me wonder what else is hidden under the sand.

EI-Makrizi says: "In our time, there was a man whose name was Saim-el-Dahr, one of the Sufis (780 A.H.). This man wanted to remedy some of the religious things, and he went to the Pyramids and disfigured the face of Abul-Hol, which has remained in that state from that time until now. From the time of this disfigurement also, the sand has invaded the cultivated lands of Giza, and the people attribute this to the disfigurement of Abul-Hol" (3).
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EI-Makrizi says: "In our time, there was a man whose name was Saim-el-Dahr, one of the Sufis (780 A.H.). This man wanted to remedy some of the religious things, and he went to the Pyramids and disfigured the face of Abul-Hol, which has remained in that state from that time until now. From the time of this disfigurement also, the sand has invaded the cultivated lands of Giza, and the people attribute this to the disfigurement of Abul-Hol" (3).
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al-Maqrizi notes that Muhammad Sa'im al-Dahr, the leader of a Sufi tariqah in Cairo - whose name means something along the line of "he who constantly fasts", a practice forbidden in Islam - took it upon himself to deface the Sphinx since local Egyptians were still burning milk-thistle (shuka'a) and safflower (badhaward) at the foot of the Sphinx and murning a verse 63 times in hope that their wishes would be fulfilled. So, basically, in 708 AH (1378 CE), Saim Al-Dahr took a crowbar and pried off the nose, which would be considered a great insult, since it deprives the entity from drawing breath, in the mindset of the period, effectively "killing" the "idol."

When I took World History in high school, I was taught by a decidedly Afrocentric teacher, who mentioned the "target practice" myth but coupled it with evil intentions on Napoleon's troops part - saying they did so (quote)"to hide the fact that the ancient Egyptians were black."(end quote)

I recall having some decidedly lively arguments with her about this and other ill-informed pronouncements along this line throughout the course. When I pointed out to her the Al-Maqrizi statement, and that the damage was in fact done by an Egyptian, she huffed and puffed about it, but had no proof of her own statements.

Just to note that sometimes teachers in schools are not as factual (or knowledgeable) as they should be.